Satou Sakie Gets A Hug
by sqbr
Summary: In which Sakie gets very drunk and says more than she means to, but it all works out in the end.
1. Chapter 1

Sakie was having a very strange dream. It started with Takahashi-sensei ringing her up, which was promising, but then he just talked about boring school stuff and the weather. She was having trouble thinking straight, and had a little trouble following what he was saying- something about snow and asking if she had much food in the house?

"What I have," she said cheerfully, "Is a _lot_ of beer." There'd been a special at the supermarket by the train station and she'd brought back as much as she could carry. She'd somewhat regretted this on the walk home: there'd been a remarkable amount of snow on the road, and more falling, so it had been difficult to walk or see her way. But now she had beer, and comfy pyjamas, and a very effective space heater, and everything was right with the world.

"Can you go out and get more food? You should probably get some water too."

"Hmmm..." She tried standing up. "Nope. I'm just going to lay down here and drink some more beer. That's got water _and_ nutrients."

He told her very firmly not to drink any more beer, and she giggled, and then he asked for directions to her house.

"Are you coming to visit me? It's a long, _long_ way."

"Actually, I'm sort of in the area. See you soon, Satou-sensei. And no beer!"

"You always say that," she said, "And I never listen."

"Satou-"

There was a beep and her phone suddenly showed the "no service" warning. Weird. She dropped it on the ground and rolled over to get another beer.

By the time Takahashi-sensei arrived she'd forgotten he was coming. She had some trouble opening the door, and for a while she just leaned against her doorway and stared at him, standing in her garden knee-deep in snow, carrying a ridiculous number of bags. This was definitely a dream. She'd only seen snow like this during a childhood trip to Hokkaido. And there was no way he'd ever really come to her house, life wasn't that kind.

"Sorry," he said. "I know it's pretty weird showing up like this. I was hoping to beat the snow, but it was a lot further to walk than I was expecting, and then it was too late to turn back..."

"You're shivering," she said in surprise. His cheeks were chapped and his nose had gone all red, he looked _freezing_. Even if this was a dream, she didn't want to see him get hurt. "Come inside!"

"Just for a little bit," he said. "Until the weather clears. I need to get home before-" He was interrupted by a cold wind scattering thick clumps of snow into his face.

She pulled him in and shut the door.

He put the bags down and she tried to pick one up, but it was too heavy, and she just wobbled and stumbled forward. He reached out to stop her from falling, and she fell happily against his chest.

"Um," he said. "Satou-sensei, if you could not-"

"It was so nice of you to come," she said, leaning against him. Why had she never done this before? His chest was broad and strong and she could hear his heart thundering in his chest, even through his thick coat. "You feel really nice." She sniffed at his chest. "You smell nice too."

"Th-thank you. Now if I could just-"

She looked up at him. She could see all the little individual hairs on his chin, and the way his Adam's apple bobbed up and down when he spoke. "This dream is so realistic..."

"It's not a dream," he said. "You're drunk."

"I don't think so," she said, running one finger up his neck under his jacket. "I only get to touch you in my dreams. And fantasies haha."

He stared at her with wide eyes and his voice got a little croaky. "Uh...?" Normally by this point he'd have taken control, but instead he coughed and took a step back. She stepped forward to follow. "I...I am quite sure. This definitely isn't a dream." He gently lifted her hand off his skin with a gloved hand. "You're just...very, _very_ drunk."

"Yes," she said, putting her hand back. "I am _super duper_ drunk. I'm being _very_ irresponsible. You should punish me."

"Punish..."

She only got a few sentences into describing _exactly_ how he should punish her before he grabbed her forcefully. This was more like it!

"Satou-sensei," he said. "I need you to sit over here, stay very still, and _stop talking_."

She sat. "And then?"

"And then I'll put away this food, and make you something to eat before you say something you regret."

"That's not much of a punishment." She pouted but he just smiled back.

"You haven't tasted my cooking."

He started poking through her kitchen, and then stood there staring inside her fridge with a frown.

"What's wrong with my fridge?"

"It's full of food."

"Yes?"

"And you have water and other supplies in your cupboard."

"Of course!" she said. "What if I get trapped by bad weather? It's a long way to the nearest shops!"

He sighed, closed the fridge door, and softly banged his head against it. "I am such an idiot."

"No, Takahashi-sensei, don't say that! You're super smart!"

"That's debatable," he said with a grimace. "Have you had dinner?"

"Oh!" she said. "No, I think I forgot to! And I have a guest, I should get up and cook you-" She tried standing up but wobbled and fell down again.

"Sit," he said, and she sat. He really was very commanding. That and she wasn't sure she _could_ stand again right now. "How do you feel about fried rice," he asked.

"I love it!" said Sakie.

"Great," said Takahashi-sensei. She watched drowsily as he started chopping and frying, his big hands careful and precise.

"You know, Takahashi-sensei," she said, "I never fantasised about you cooking for me before. But this is pretty sexy."

He just smiled thinly and kept cooking. Eventually she got bored and started to nod off.

She was awoken a moment later by a stifled curse. "Takahashi-sensei?"

"I'm fine!" He turned on the tap and put his hand under the water. "Just burned myself a little. But if you could try to stay awake while I'm cooking that would be helpful."

"Did you have a dream inside my dream?"

He coughed. "Something like that."

"That's kind of funny..." But since he'd asked her to stay awake she did her best to do so. Soon she found herself facing a plate piled high with fried rice, and a tall glass of water.

"This is a _lot_ of fried rice."

"It will help slow down your body metabolising the alcohol in your system," said Takahashi-sensei. "Eat up."

"Ok." She sat up as straight as she could at the table, and only dropped a few mouthfuls of rice down her front. She frowned. "This isn't very good."

He laughed. "I did warn you."

But once she started eating she realised how hungry she was, and soon the plate was clean. Takahashi-sensei insisted she drink all her water, too, and refused to let her have _any_ more beer. The more she ate and sat and didn't drink, the clearer her head became. She was still a bit drunk, but certain truths were no longer as comfortably distant.

As she finished the second glass of water he'd given her, she looked up at Takahashi-sensei, standing in her kitchen washing her dishes, and the warm glow of sexy fantasy slowly and painfully faded into the cold facts of reality.

"Takahashi-sensei," she said, in a small voice. "This isn't a dream, is it?"

"Sorry."

"Ahhhhhhh." She flopped backwards onto the floor and curled into a ball. "I'm very very sorry! I was so..." _Immoral. Perverted. Disgusting._ "...so unprofessional! Please, please forget I said...any of that..." Just thinking about the things she'd said made her face so warm she felt like she'd been burned.

He just laughed at her. But it wasn't a mean laugh. "It's ok, we all say dumb things when we're drunk."

"But I _touched_ you. That was...that was a terrible thing to do! And so irresponsible!" Any other man would have taken advantage. And even Takahashi-sensei must have his limits, part of her felt sure that this would finally be too much for even his self control, and it would all be her own fault. Another part of her thought that might not be so bad, but she wanted anything that happened between them to be based on sincere affection, not coerced desire.

"You weren't drinking out in public," he said. "_That_ would be irresponsible. But you have to be so tight-laced all the time, it's not surprising you want to let go when when you're in private. I'm sorry I invaded your privacy like this."

"But you were just trying to take care of me, because I..." She tilted her head. Their earlier conversation was still pretty fuzzy. "Why _are_ you here?"

He sighed. "I misunderstood what you said and thought you weren't prepared for the snow." He gestured towards the bags of cans and bottles of water he'd brought with him. "So now I guess you're extra prepared."

"Oh!" she said. "Well, more is always good, right? And you can take most of it back with you when you go."

"Mmm," he said. "About that. This is no ordinary snow storm." He paused, and in the silence she could hear the cold winds screaming outside. "There was an incident involving a demi-human from Finland, it's actually interesting the way he-anyway. If the weather report I read before my phone lost service is right, I don't think I'll be able to leave tonight."

An icy ball of guilt and anxiety settled in Sakie's chest, much colder than the snow outside, and just as paralysing.

* * *

For the most part, Tetsuo admired the old-fashioned minimalism of Satou-sensei's home. It wasn't what he would have imagined, but had felt entirely right when he'd seen it: the cosy little wooden house nestled far from the world amongst overgrown trees, the low table and soft looking tatami, the carefully stocked kitchen. It had a surprisingly empty feel, for such a small house: there were barely any decorations or personal items, asides from a stuffed bear in a corner and a few piles of books beside the tv. It felt beautiful, but humble and lonely, rather like Satou-sensei herself.

_Wait, no, stop thinking about beautiful she is._

Thankfully she'd put on some less revealing clothing after sobering up, but the vision of her in soft, form-revealing sleepwear was burned into his brain. So was the feeling of her pressed against him, and the way her voice had sounded when she'd talked about- _stop thinking about it, she was drunk_. And now he was _wearing her clothes_, squeezed into what was intended to be a loose nightgown but on him was more like a long, tight t-shirt, and unable to escape the faint, enticing spice of her scent.

"Are you comfortable?" she asked.

"Very!" said Tetsuo, trying to adjust the sleeves so they stopped cutting off circulation to his arms. "Sorry again about this. I realise this must be your worst nightmare. Are you sure you don't want me to sleep in the bathroom?" This was all his fault for being an overprotective dumbass who hadn't trusted another adult to take care of herself. The least he could do was minimise the inevitable awkwardness.

"No, you'd freeze without a heater!" she said, which was probably true. "And my worst nightmare would be...being trapped with someone I couldn't trust." She gave a sad smile that made Tetsuo feel like the world's biggest perv, and also angry at a world that had made her have to always worry about being alone with men. "But with you, I know nothing bad is going to happen." She sighed. "Not to _me_, anyway."

"It's just a few dreams," he said. "I'll be fine. I've actually been curious to know what they're like."

"Oh," she said. "Well then, um...I hope you gather some useful data." She smiled awkwardly. She was always so endearingly patient with his curiosity about her nature.

"Haha, thanks. Good night, Satou-sensei."

"Good night, Takahashi-sensei."

She turned out the light.

He adjusted himself as well as he could on her tiny spare futon, but it fit him as badly as spare futons usually did. Still, it had been an exhausting day: first worrying she'd be trapped with no food, then the long trek through the snow, and then all the awkwardness afterwards. And he really was curious about these succubus dreams. All the books described them in such dramatic terms. Even the brief vision he'd experienced while cooking dinner had been _intense_: no specific images he could remember, just an overwhelming all-encompassing desire. It was pretty awkward knowing Satou-sensei would know he was having a dream like that in the same room as her, but she'd be asleep too. And asides from that, wasn't much of human endeavour devoted to finding new and exciting sexual experiences? Here he was about to have one for free, with no risk or expense. He burrowed under the blankets, resigned himself to having cold feet, and drifted off to sleep.

He woke a few hours later into the same dark room. He thought back on his dreams- there'd been something about a flying horse, and a part where he was drowning, and another where he suddenly found himself in the middle of a college statistics exam. None of it had been especially erotic. Maybe the whole succubus dream thing was a myth? But Satou-sensei had seemed pretty certain about it. Maybe it just hadn't happened to kick in for him this time. He felt a little disappointed.

As he woke up a little more he realised the room wasn't entirely dark. Turning his head he saw Satou-sensei in bed, on the other side of the room, lit by the glow of her phone.

"Satou-sensei," he said, then realised she was wearing headphones. "Satou-sensei," he repeated, louder.

She let out a cute little squeak and dropped her phone. "Takahashi-sensei! Why are you awake?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing. Have you been staying up so I don't get any weird dreams?" The other alternative was that she was too nervous to sleep with him around, which would be even worse.

She laughed awkwardly. "Maybe. I'm really not comfortable making you experience that, and I can sleep after you leave."

"That may not be for a day or more," he said. "You need to sleep. And if you fall asleep tomorrow during the day, it'll be even weirder for me than if I have the dreams now while I'm sleeping."

"I guess," she said, reluctantly, but her voice was rough with fatigue. What time was it? How long had she been awake at this point? And she must be hungover by now, too. She was always so careful of others, and never careful enough of herself. "Are you sure?"

"Very sure. Go to sleep!"

"Ok," she said. "Good night, Takahashi-sensei. I hope your dreams aren't too bad."

"Same to you, Satou-sensei."

* * *

Sakie woke to the sound of someone calling her name.

"Five more minutes," she muttered. She had a killer headache and really didn't feel like waking up.

A second later she remembered that she lived alone, and she turned with terror towards the sound of rustling fabric coming from the same direction as the voice. A second after that she remembered why Takahashi-sensei was _in her bedroom_, and terror turned to embarrassment and guilt. This was mixed with certain other emotions by the sight of Takahashi-sense rapidly trying to pull down his nightgown (_her_ nightgown) and untangle his legs from where they'd gotten mixed up with the bedding. He had _very_ nice legs: long, muscular, and with a covering of hair that made you want to- She forced herself to look up at his face. "Takahashi-sensei? Did you say something?"

"N-no," he said. "Sorry. I was just...uh...dreaming." Sakie knew from personal experience that it took a lot to make Takahashi-sensei blush. But apparently being discovered humping Sakie's spare futon while calling her name would do it. It was certainly enough to make _her_ blush. He'd dreamed of _her_? Oh god, how excruciating. And hot. It was excruciatingly hot, and she was not going to stare at his legs, or think about what he must have been imagining them doing, because that would be _weird and bad_.

"I'll just make breakfast," she said, standing up, suddenly very awake.

"That sounds great," he said, still a little pink but almost back to his usual calm, smiling self. "Can I help?"

"No, no," she said, "You made dinner! It's my turn to cook!" And if he got up to help, he'd pass near her, and she'd see his legs again, and she wasn't sure she was up to to either of those things right now.

"Ok," he said. "Sorry about the mess in the kitchen, I couldn't figure out where to put the clean dishes so I just left them out."

"You cleaned _all_ the dirty dishes," she said, in wonder, looking at the neatly lined up plates and cookware.

"Yes, is that ok?"

"Yes! Thank you so much! I'd been putting them off haha." He was so wonderful she wanted to cry. But since that would just make things even more awkward she just went into the bathroom to wash her face while she waited for the rice to start cooking.

She stared at herself in the mirror. Her face looked pale and grey and her head hurt like crazy. She heard a thumping noise and realised Takahashi-sensei had must have snuck into the bathroom earlier to put his futon cover in the washing machine. She let out a long low groan. She had messed this all up _so badly_.

And even though she trusted Takahashi-sensei, even though he had been _supernaturally_ patient, a part of her was very aware of the fact that she was trapped, alone, in a house with a man who had experienced the full force of her aphrodisiac effect. If there was one thing she'd learned the ten years since her succubus nature manifested, it was that she had to be constantly vigilant, because _any_ man affected by her, no matter how nice on the surface, could turn awful when he got her alone.

Yet...she liked him, didn't she? If they were dating, they'd be alone like this too, and he'd be just as affected. Wasn't this what she wanted?

"Hangover that bad, huh?" laughed Takahashi-sensei from the other room.

"Mmm," said Sakie. She walked back into the kitchen and opened the fridge. "Do you like bacon and eggs?"

"That sounds great," said Takahashi-sensei.

She stood by the stove and and watched the pan's contents bubble. She did this every morning, but now she was cooking for two. She plated the bacon and eggs more carefully than usual, and set out a few plates of side dishes to go with the rice. That looked nice, didn't it? Takahashi-sensei was smiling, which felt pretty good. And then she went to sit and realised she had the only cushion.

"Oh no," she said. "I don't usually have guests. They came as a set, I know I have some extras somewhere..."

"It's fine, your tatami are really soft," he said.

"But you're the guest," she said.

"But you cooked breakfast."

"But...you..." She felt like she was going to cry. Takahashi-sensei looked up at her, standing there with too many plates in her hands, and his smile fell slightly.

"If it matters to you I'll take the cushion," he said.

"Thank you," she said, and sat down at last. She kneeled on the mat and picked at her breakfast. "Takahashi-sensei..."

"Mmm?" He looked at her across the table, his mouth full of food she'd cooked for him. She'd fantasised about this too, a few times, but this wasn't exactly what she'd had in mind.

"I know I said this last night. But I'm really, really sorry for how I behaved. That was totally inappropriate."

He winced and and quickly swallowed the food in his mouth. "Ah," he said. "I was hoping you'd forget all that. Don't worry, I know that was just the alcohol talking."

"I hope I haven't lost your respect." _Please don't think I'm the kind of girl everyone expects a succubus to be. Even if I kind of am._

"Satou-sensei...of course not. Everyone says weird things when they're drunk."

"Really? Even though you know I'm...thinking gross things about you all the time?" She'd tried to stop, but it made her so happy, and he was _so hot_.

"I...that's..." He looked surprised. Wait, had he genuinely believed it was just the alcohol talking? Damn it!

"I mean..." she said, trying to backtrack. "Not that I actually..."

"Well, it's flattering that you, uh..." he coughed. "But yes, I still respect you. It's not like I don't...that is, everyone has thoughts like that. Well, most people." His voice took on the warm, energetic tone it got when he was talking about science. "Did you know seventy five percent of women have rape fantasies?" Oh god. She really, really liked Takahashi-sensei, and his enthusiasm for science was endearing, but sometimes he could stand to be a little more...circumspect.

"Seventy- no, I didn't. But-"

"They're a bit less common for men. My understanding is that it's a way for women feel in control, since you're made to feel so powerless with regards to sex in our society. Is that how it works for you? Considering how trouble sex has caused in your life, it would make sense."

"Uh," she said. "I never really...thought about it..." _Takahashi-sensei, I don't want to discuss why I have ravishment fantasies about you __**with you**__._ Even if it was nice that he didn't judge her for it.

"I wonder if they're more or less common for succubi in general."

"Um. I don't know," she said.

"I was thinking-" He stopped. "Ah...sorry, I got carried away, this probably isn't something you want to discuss over breakfast."

"Not...really," she said. "Well, not...not about my...my, um...about me in particular. But the general topic is interesting."

"Really?"

"Mmm. I hadn't really thought about how being a succubus could be a little like being a man, in some ways. Socially speaking."

"Oh?"

"If it's about control then, um... I think other succubi feel more in control than I do. Some of them, anyway. They think of their powers as a way to control other people, not something that controls them."

"Oh, I hadn't meant it like that, but...you're right. Maybe that's why you're seen with so much mistrust. Men don't like having their sexual power challenged."

"Well...nobody likes having their free will taken away. I think it's understandable that they resent that." Did he resent her for it too, under his veneer of calm acceptance?

"Hmm," said Takahashi-sensei. "But it's not like you can help being the way you are. And, how can I put this..." He waved his chopsticks in the air as he talked. "I know you would never actually try to seduce me, or anyone else. But at this point, I think I've experienced a level of your aphrodisiac effect that's about equivalent to an intentional seduction. And I still have _my_ free will."

He did, didn't he? And it wasn't just him. Takahashi-sensei was the first man she'd met who'd convincingly acted _normal_ when affected by her, but plenty of others had resisted. Ukagi-san, for example, reacted with exaggerated horror any time they accidentally touched. Most other men stared uncomfortably, or said something awkward, but those who actually tried to touch her were thankfully in the minority.

"Well, it doesn't work the same on everyone. If a man is, um, not very inclined to sexual thoughts or...uh, gay...not that you are! Or that it would be bad if you were! But it varies..."

"Hmm?" said Takahashi-sensei. "No, I'm not gay or asexual. I think my attraction to women is about average."

"O-oh," said Sakie. She had to repress her happy smile. He _was_ attracted to her! He was just nice about it!

"And it's not like men don't make the same excuses with other women too," he said. "'Oh, she was so pretty I couldn't help myself' and all that. Maybe the real issue here isn't how attractive you are, but how bad men tend to be at dealing with their own attractions."

It would certainly be comforting to think that. Then she could straight-forwardly resent all the men who'd harassed her, instead of feeling partly responsible.

"That's definitely _part_ of the problem," said Sakie. "I've heard of men claiming human girls are succubi to try and get away with...with all sorts of things. But this gets back to our fundamental disagreement about whether the attraction men feel towards succubi is basically the same as the sort they feel towards other women."

He smiled. "You're still disagreeing with me about that, huh?"

She tapped her chest. "I am an actual succubus."

He tapped his own chest. "And I am an actual man."

"Haha, true." Even if he didn't match her experience of what men were usually like.

The conversation got less awkward after that. They moved from human biological urges to biology in general, and Takahashi-sensei explained why he'd been in the area in the first place: checking out a local farm as a potential site for a field trip.

"I bet the students would love that!" said Sakie. "I hope you get approval. The school never approves my proposals for field trips."

Takahashi-sensei blinked at her. "There are math field trips?"

"I know it's a little unusual. But my students are always asking 'how is this useful in real life?'. So I thought we could go to a factory or a building site and look at how they use math and statistics to optimise production and so on. If possible I'd like to find somewhere that does free samples of food, I remember those were always my favourite field trips when I was at school."

"Well then..." said Takahashi-sensei. He paused for dramatic effect. "How about a farm?" He smiled. "We could do a joint trip, that way it would be easier to justify the cost to the school. Everyone would be learning math _and_ biology."

"Oh!" said Sakie. "That's a great idea. Farms even have food!"

"And my students always complain whenever I use any math. Even though math is a very important part of biology! If it was a math class too, that might shut them up."

"Ha," said Sakie. "I'm not sure _anything_ can stop students complaining about learning math."

"Maybe not," said Takahashi-sensei. He rubbed the back of his neck. "I must admit, I didn't always pay a lot of attention to it back in high-school. But it's a fascinating subject. I wish I understood it better."

"Really?" He liked math? He really was the perfect man.

"Absolutely," he said. "Evolution is statistics, genes can be modelled with algebra, the brain is like a computer...we're all equations made solid. It's why I wish I understood physics better too."

"Well I wish I understood biology better! I'm a biological organism, after all. And my biology is very...very relevant to my life. But I never paid much attention to it in school either."

He smiled. "If you ever have any questions I'll do my best to explain."

Her brain helpfully offered a dirty teacher-student fantasy involving him that she did her best to ignore.

"Thank you," she said. "And, um, the same for you, with math. Though I'm just a high-school teacher, I don't know if I would understand how to model genes and all those other things."

"I'm just a high-school teacher too. None of us understands everything, but when we put our bits of knowledge together sometimes we can learn something new."

"Then I'm happy to share all the knowledge I have."

He smiled. "Thank you, Satou-sensei."


	2. Chapter 2

Satou-sensei had amazing hands. They were the only part of her other than her face that Tetsuo could usually see, and so they naturally drew his eye. Her face was lovely too, but there was something special about her hands: the slender, delicate fingers, the neatly rounded nails, the smooth skin, the way they moved through the air when she spoke. And the way they felt when she touched him...

Watching her neatly shape rice into onigiri, Tetsuo kept thinking about his dream. She'd been naked, and transcendently beautiful, and her hands had touched him with that same careful gentleness. Did her real naked body look that good in real life? Was that possible? Not that you could tell right now under her loose, bulky clothes, but she definitely had amazing breasts, and gorgeous legs, and skin like-

"Takahashi-sensei?"

"Hmm?" He kept his expression carefully even. "Sorry, I was lost in thought. What did you say?"

She gestured to the plate of onigiri in front of her. "I asked if this was enough for your lunch. I know a big guy like you probably has to eat more than me."

"Oh. Uh, yeah, that should be plenty. Thanks." She was so nice. This was by far the longest stretch of time that the two of them had spent together alone, and he found himself enjoying her company more and more. At school they were always distracted by work, and she was always a little on guard. She seemed to be relaxing more around him now, still avoiding touching him but not making herself small and quiet the way she usually did. He liked this new side of her, and liked knowing she felt comfortable enough around him to show it. Now if he could just get his hormones under control, so she _kept_ feeling comfortable around him...

What had he been doing before he got distracted by the beauty of her hands? Ah, chopping cucumber, right. He looked down and felt slightly embarrassed to see how little he'd cut. He'd _really_ gotten distracted. "I better finish chopping this so we can eat, huh."

"Oh, that's-Takahashi-sensei, your hand!"

"My..." He focused on his hands, instead of the cucumber, and realised one of his fingers was bleeding. "Oh, oops. I must have cut myself."

"That's a big cut!" she said. "You wash it out and I'll go get the first aid kit!"

"It's not that bad," he said, turning on the tap and watching the bloody water wash away. It was always strange seeing his own blood and knowing it was full of living cells, still going about their business for the few moments until they coagulated, unaware that they were doomed to die. Not that blood cells could actually think, but sometimes it was funny to think of them that way. Of course, unlike humans, they reproduced asexually...

"Hold out your hand."

"Hmm?"

"You really are distracted today!" Satou-sensei was looking up at him with a cotton wool ball in her hand. "It'll be hard for you to bandage it yourself, so I'll do it. I'll make sure not to touch you."

"Ok," he said, and held out his hand. She was as fastidious as always, gently drying and disinfecting the wound, then applying the bandage, all without a single touch between her skin and his, directing him to smooth out the bandage as necessary with his good hand.

But despite all her fastidiousness it was still _sexy as hell_. Tetsuo had never been especially into sexy nurses, but right now he felt like he'd be willing to rush into any battle, risking any amount of injury, as long as he knew Satou-sensei would be there afterwards to bandage him up. The fact that she'd never actually try to use her aphrodisiac effect to influence him that way just made her more attractive.

"There!" she said when she was done, smiling up at him with her warm, infectious smile. "How does that feel?"

"It feels great," he said. He smiled back and had to use every ounce of his self control not to pull her towards him for a hug. Or a kiss. Or...

He looked away and put his hands in his pockets. "Those onigiri look really good," he said. "Let's eat."

Unfortunately, watching Satou-sensei eat onigiri turned out to be even more distracting than watching her make them. The way her delicate, smooth lips stretched and softly enveloped the soft, round...she licked a stray rice grain off her lips with the tip of her small pink tongue and Tetsuo couldn't quite stifle a groan.

"Takahashi-sensei? Is something wrong with your lunch? You haven't eaten any."

"Oh, no, it's fine!" he said, and took a big bite, looking to the side as he chewed. This meant staring at a blank wall, but at least the wall wasn't sexy. "These are good!"

The next time he inadvertently caught her eye, she was frowning. "Takahashi-sensei, is something wrong? You've been acting very strange."

"It's nothing serious," he said. "I just keep getting distracted."

"Distracted?" she said. "By what?"

"Well...um..." He couldn't think of any way to explain it that wouldn't make her horribly embarrassed. "Satou-sensei...have you ever heard of a succubus's effect getting stronger over time, perhaps due to repeated exposure?"

"Not exactly," she said. "I've heard of-" She let out a horrified gasp. "Oh no, has that happened to you?"

He gave an embarrassed shrug. "Looks like, haha..."

"Is that why you cut yourself? Did I do something to distract you?"

"No, no. You're behaving basically the same as normal, and wearing the same sort of clothes. And normally when you're like this, you're not especially attractive, you're just like any other pretty girl. But now, it's uh...different."

"Oh," she said, face falling. "Oh no."

"You were saying you'd heard about something like this before?" He tried not to let his voice sound desperate.

"Not exactly. I've heard that...um. Once a man has...is...intimate...with a succubus, her power over him becomes temporarily stronger, and she doesn't have to try as hard to seduce him again. But you and I haven't done anything like that!"

"No," he said. As much as he might have thought about it. Her too, apparently, which he was trying very hard _not_ to think about. Her sexual inner life was none of his business. "...oh, unless my dreams count? I guess we were in the same room, and my brain might not be able to tell the difference. It depends what causes the effect."

"Your...your dreams?"

"Ah, yeah." He ruffled his hair self consciously. "Sorry, I'm sure that's a little awkward to hear about."

"Um. Well. It's...it's f-flattering." She was blushing like a tomato, and speaking very quickly. Yep, awkward. "And...I had kind of figured it out. And it's not like it's your fault. And...oh no but this is very very bad."

"It's not that bad. It's a little distracting, but no worse than a headache. And it's a lot less unpleasant than a headache haha."

"But what if it gets worse? And we have to work together! Should I change schools? Or-"

"Satou-sensei, calm down. It'll be ok. You don't have to change schools. Didn't you say it was temporary?"

She blinked at him. "Oh. I did didn't I? Haha, sorry, I was being silly."

"Even if it was permanent, we'd find a way around it. It was my own mistake that got me in this mess, you shouldn't be punished for it."

"Neither should you. You already got injured!"

She made it sound like he'd lost a hand instead of getting a tiny cut. "It's no big deal. I'll just have to be more careful around knives when I'm near you for the next little while. Or maybe let you do the cutting."

"Yes, definitely!" she said, with a determined expression. "Leave all the cutting to me!"

He laughed. "Ok." She was so _cute_. "So. You said the effect can get stronger when someone has sex with a succubus. Does anything make it weaker?"

"Um," she said. "Also h-having s-sex." The fact that she was a succubus who got embarrassed saying the word 'sex' was cute too. Everything about her was so cute he could barely stand it. "It gets weaker for a while afterwards, then stronger, then goes back to normal."

"Like going into withdrawal from a drug," he said. Interesting. "Wow, no wonder succubi have such a reputation for being able to control men. Does the partner eventually develop a tolerance?"

"Oh," she said. "I haven't heard that exactly but...that would make sense! I know a lot of succubi only like short term relationships, and their exes generally get really clingy for a while, then just go away."

"I wonder if they're more or less susceptible to other succubi after that. It would depend on whether you all have an identical effect, or if it's unique to each succubus..." Unfortunately this was the kind of thing you'd never get ethics approval to study, and most of the literature on succubi he'd encountered focussed more on controlling them than understanding them.

She sighed, and sounded so sad he desperately wished he could give her a hug. "I guess this finally proves we're not just like more attractive versions of ordinary women," she said. "No wonder so few of us get married."

"Attraction tends to wane in any relationship," he said. "If you really like the other person, that doesn't matter."

"I suppose," she said, but she didn't sound convinced. Poor Satou-sensei. Did she think no-one would ever truly love her? Who wouldn't fall in love with a woman like her? What was wrong with the world, that it made her suffer alone just for being attractive, when she was so kind, and clever, and _wonderful_. He wanted to hug her and protect her forever.

Ugh, he was getting soppy _as well_ as horny. Was that the next stage of attraction? Everything he'd read had implied succubi only caused sexual attraction, but books were often wrong. He thought about asking Satou-sensei, but decided things were awkward enough as it was.

"Look," he said, "There's nothing we can do about this right now. Why don't we just continue with the day we had planned. Didn't you want to show me a documentary?"

"You won't mind sitting in the same room as me?"

"I'll be looking at the tv, not you. It's not a sexy documentary is it?"

"Um. It's about non-linear dynamical systems." Was that a math thing? He wasn't usually into math documentaries, but he trusted Satou-sensei not to choose something boring. And at least math was definitely not sexy.

"I think I'll be ok." He gave her a reassuring smile and she smiled back.

And for the most part, he _was_ ok. She'd found her spare cushion, and sitting on the floor like this made him think of formal ceremonies and judo practice, neither of which had very erotic associations. The documentary's swirling visuals and complex mathematical concepts were very engrossing- if there was one thing that could reliably distract him from any other preoccupation, it was interesting scientific ideas. While the focus of the documentary was mathematics, there was a repeated theme of biological applications, and most significantly, examples involving demi-humans. But thinking about how interesting it was made him think about how well Satou-sensei knew him, which made him think about how great she was, and then he'd find himself staring at her despite himself, and by the time he'd managed to drag his eyes away he'd have missed a chunk of the documentary.

As the credits began to roll, he had nothing more to distract him from staring at her, and only noticed how long he'd been doing it when he realised how sad she was looking.

"It's pretty bad isn't it?" she said. She looked down at her knees. "You won't be able to leave until at least tomorrow. And after tonight, you'll feel even worse."

"Well, won't I feel better first?" he said. "And then after that I can go home, and the effect will wear off."

She put her hand on her neck and clutched at the fabric of her jacket. "But what if you can't? And you still have to survive until tonight, it's hours before either of us will feel like sleeping."

"I'll survive." He'd gotten through his teen years without too much trouble, he could handle a few days of this.

"I can't have this on my conscience," she said. "Not where there's an easy way to fix it." She was wearing that determined expression again, but this time it gave Tetsuo a bad feeling. She shuffled closer, until she was close enough to touch. _Don't touch her don't touch her_.

"Satou-sensei," he croaked, "What are you-"

And then she unzipped the front of her jacket.

* * *

There had been a tiny, optimistic part of Sakie that had thought things might still work out between her and Takahashi-sensei. He'd been _amazingly_ decent about everything, and beyond the impersonal, inevitable sexual attraction, he did seem to be genuinely enjoying her company. She'd thought "In a few days things will return to normal, and we can keep chatting like we did before, and maybe over time he'll decide he likes me enough to ask me out. Maybe he _already_ likes me and is just keeping it hidden, like he does with his attraction. Maybe..."

But then he'd said she was "just like any other pretty girl", and she'd realised she was being ridiculous. Takahashi-sensei didn't seem to be distressed by his attraction to her, but he _did_ seem to want to hide it from her as much as possible. Some of that could be put down to him being respectful and polite, but surely if he had the slightest interest in her romantically he wouldn't be radiating "I just see you as a colleague, let's pretend this isn't happening" quite so loudly. Especially since she hadn't always done a very good job of hiding her feelings for him.

And of course, since he did just see her as a colleague, he might plausibly not want to make things strange by having sex, even of an entirely unromantic sort. It probably _was_ a bad idea. But it was the only way she could be with him, and would make him more comfortable. She was sick of always being good. She'd been good for ten years, and look what it had turned her life into.

And she was still a succubus, and he was still a man. Not many men would say no to this kind of offer.

Even fewer of them would let out a high pitched yelp, run headlong across the room, and barricade themselves in the bathroom.

"Um," she said, zipping back up her jacket. "So that's a no then?"

"Mmm," said Takahashi-sensei, though the door.

"You don't have to lock yourself in there," she said. "I've done my jacket back up. I'm sorry, I thought...I'm so used to thinking of s-sex as something _I_ want to avoid, I didn't think about how not all men would want to do it with me."

"And that's one reason I'm in here- you don't really want to do this. You're just trying to be nice."

"I..." She was glad he couldn't see her face right now. "I do, though. You...you're very attractive. And I trust you to treat me well."

"Mmmmmmph." It sounded like he was biting something. Oh dear.

"I'm sorry! I'm not trying to manipulate you!"

"It's fine," he said, weakly. "I think we're...past the point where we can pretend not to be attracted to each other. But sex is about more than attraction. I've had casual sex with friends in the past, and...it was bad. I know I come across as pretty unsentimental, but I'm a bit of a romantic deep down. It would be...nice in the moment. Very nice, I..." His voice gave out, and he didn't speak for a moment. "But I'd regret it later. I think you would too. You wouldn't have spent all these years being so careful if you were someone who could have sex with just anyone."

"Oh," she said. "Oh no, I'm just like all those other succubi. I thought I was better, but I'm not."

"No, Satou-sensei, you were just trying to be kind. And I really appreciate it. It's just for the best if we don't."

"Mmm," she said. She leaned forward and put her head in her hands, feeling tears dripping down. She'd ruined everything. "Can...can we still be friends?"

"Of course!" She heard the bathroom door open. "Satou-sensei...ah, you're crying."

"Sorry."

"No, I...do you want a hug?"

She looked up. He'd knelt down in front of her, his gently smiling face so close she could touch it. "What?"

"I don't think it would make much difference at this point," he said, with a wry smile. "And you look like you could do with one."

"Ok," she said, in a small voice.

He pulled her into his arms. It felt as warm and safe as she'd always thought it would. She rested her head against his chest and felt his hand gently pat her hair. It was incredibly soothing, she felt like she could stay in his arms forever.

But that would be too cruel, when he was being so kind.

"I'm getting your shirt dirty," she said. "I should go wipe my face."

He let her go, and she forced herself to move away.

"Sorry," he said, softly. "I know it hurts to be rejected. But I'm sure you'll find a guy you can like properly."

"Properly?" she said, wiping her eyes.

"I mean...I know you're, uh, attracted to me, but you want someone you can have romantic feelings towards, right?" He paused and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Actually, I guess you never _said_ you were interested in dating, I shouldn't make assumptions. Just because you have standards, that doesn't mean you're only interested in-"

"I'm interested in dating!" she said, louder than she'd intended. "I want a romantic relationship!"

"Right!" he said. "That's what I thought! We're the same like that."

"Um..." she said. "Not quite...the same..."

"Mmmm?"

"Takahashi-sensei..." Before she could stop herself, the words came out in a rush. "Why can't I have feelings towards you?"

"Uh." He stared at her. "Because...you don't? I mean I'm kind of old and funny looking, and you never..." He rubbed the back of his head. "There's no specific reason why you wouldn't, I suppose. We get along pretty well, and you're apparently attracted to me. I just...assumed..."

She looked him in the eye and willed herself to speak. "You're not too old, and you're very handsome, and you're...you're the kindest person I know." She took a deep breath. "You...you shouldn't make assumptions."

His mouth fell open. "O-oh...? Oh." He sat down heavily. "_Oh_."

"I'm sorry," she said. "I just keep making things more awkward for you."

"No, Satou-sensei," he said, "It's...it's fine. I don't mind! I...I don't mind it at _all_." And he was smiling to himself, like he'd just gotten a pleasant surprise. He didn't mind? Did that mean he was...happy? "I just...it never occurred to me as a possibility before. I mean, you're the most attractive person I've ever met. You could have _any one_. It's...a little hard to get my head around."

"You said I wasn't especially attractive," she said, trying not to whine.

"I did? Well that's definitely not...oh, you mean when I said you're equivalent to other pretty girls? That's at your _least_ attractive. Which is a pretty high baseline! And at your most attractive you're..." He shook his head, looking down at his hands. "I literally can't look at you directly right now, because my brain will stop working. Which would be bad, because I want to think about this new information carefully."

"Hmm..." he said, frowning in thought. He really was just going to sit there and think about her liking him. What was there to think so hard about?

Was he trying to decide if he liked her? Or just how best to reject her? He was clearly flattered by her interest, but if he liked her back he would presumably have considered the possibility before now.

"So, just to clarify, you have romantic feelings for me?"

_Takahashi-sensei, couldn't you just kill me and put me out of my misery, instead of asking me questions like that?_

"Mmm."

"Does that mean you're interested in dating?"

From anyone else that would just be a round-about way of asking her out. But from Takahashi-sensei it was likely a genuine request for more information, and she forced herself not to get her hopes up. "Yes."

"Satou-sensei..." he said. "It's...a little difficult for me to think straight right now. And I never really thought about the possibility before. But...you're really great. I like spending time with you, and we have a lot in common, and you're really, _really_..." He coughed, and then smiled at her. "Uh. If you wanted to go on a date, I think that would be...nice. Very, very nice."

It would be nice. Even if she wasn't sure what a date would look like for her. No holding hands in public, no crowded amusement parks...maybe a quiet picnic, with her wearing ugly clothing so she didn't get harassed by passers-by...

Not that it mattered. It was never going to happen.

"You...you never thought about it before?" She wanted to cry.

He shook his head. "Ever since we met I've been trying to keep all my thoughts about you professional. I observed my attraction to you as an interesting scientific phenomenon, but didn't think about it beyond that." He looked away, and she could see the faint hint of a blush on his cheeks. "But now that I am thinking about it...I think...m-maybe I like you too?"

He liked her. Takahashi-sensei, the most handsome, charming, decent man she knew, liked her back. He wanted to go on a date with her. _He liked her._

He liked her _now_. But he hadn't before. And in a day or two, when the effect of being around her wore off, he probably would probably go back to not liking her again.

_This_ was her worst nightmare: to have the man she liked like her back, but to have it be fake, a phantom created by intense, artificial, _temporary_ attraction.

"So you only...you only like me now that you're extra affected by aphrodisiac effect."

"Oh," he said. "Hmm. I suppose that might be affecting my feelings." Her heart sank further. If even _he_ thought that his feelings were fake..."But I can't see why I wouldn't want to go out with you normally. You're basically perfect." He was wearing a sappy expression she'd never seen on him before. He was definitely not himself. Or at least, not the version of himself he usually was around her. This was Takahashi-sensei when he liked someone: a little more open, and little more affectionate. Somehow, even more loveable than usual. But she shouldn't let herself get attached. This version of him was not for her.

"But you don't know that you would want to. What if you get home and realise you're not interested in me and never will be?"

"I can't imagine that happening," he said. "I don't feel like my feelings about you have actually changed all that much. I just hadn't put it all together before now."

"Mmm," she said, unconvinced. He didn't act like this usually, did he? Something clearly _had_ changed.

He smiled at her, but when she didn't smile back, he said, "How long do you think it will take for the effect to wear off?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe a day or two."

"Ok then," he said. "So we wait until I can go home, and then wait a few more days after that, and if I'm still interested, I ask you out on a date. How does that sound?"

"Oh," she said. "That sounds...very logical." She didn't think he _would_ still be interested. But at least it meant they could stop arguing about it. The more he kept telling her he liked her, the more she started to believe it, and that way lay only heartbreak. She smiled at him. "I really like how logical you are."

"I really like...everything about you," he said, and she really, really wished she could believe it was real.

"Ok," she said, sitting up straight. "We have to get you through until tomorrow afternoon. I don't suppose you could, um...m-m..."

"Masturbate?" he said, like it was no big deal. "I tried that, it didn't make much difference."

"When did you- no, never mind," she said, steadfastly ignoring the mental images the topic brought up. "Ok then. How about, um..."

And then, impossibly, they heard a knock at the door. Takahashi-sensei quietly moved out of sight of the door, presumably to protect her reputation from gossip. Which was pretty pointless when everyone around here knew she was a succubus, but sweet none-the-less.

Sakie pulled on the door, which opened easily, and found herself facing an unfamiliar young woman, dressed in a neat black uniform over a tall and muscular frame, and holding a snow shovel.

"Good afternoon Satou-sama!" said the woman. "I am Yano Kozue from White Lotus Landscaping. Please enjoy your newly cleaned pathway!" She handed Sakie a card, which said _Yano Kozue, White Lotus Landscaping: Beautiful gardens for a reasonable price!_.

And sure enough, a neat path had been cut through the snow all the way to the road. The snow was up to Sakie's shoulders now, and it felt like her garden had become a strange magical kingdom divided by clean white cliffs.

"Thank you?" said Sakie. "Do I owe you something? Why did you-"

"Oh no, everything has been paid for!" said Yano-san, brightly. "A Detective Ugaki says to ring him when you have reception, and to make sure to keep warm."

"Oh," said Sakie. "Oh! Thank you so much. You did a great job." Gold old Ugaki-san, thought Sakie affectionately. He really was like a protective dad, as much as he pretended otherwise.

"You're welcome!" said Yano-san. She leaned in conspiratorially. "A lot of people think women can't do this sort of work, it was nice that your policeman friend wanted to hire a woman specifically. Unless he's your jealous boyfriend?"

"No, just a friend!" said Sakie.

"Don't worry," said Yano-san. "I won't tell him about the other guy. He's way cuter than that old detective."

Oh god. "No, it's not like that!"

"Of course, of course," said Yano-san, with a wink. So much for protecting Sakie's reputation. Yano-san slipped back into her formal customer service persona. "I hope my service here today has been acceptable. Please consider White Lotus Landscaping for your future landscaping needs, and feel free to contact me via the details on my card at any time."

"I will," said Sakie. "Thank you again." Yano-san bowed, then turned to go back down the path she'd cleared, shovel jauntily perched on her shoulder.

When she was sure Yano-san was totally gone, Sakie closed the door and turned back to Takahashi-sensei, who was still standing bashfully in the corner, unsuccessfully trying to look small.

"Haha, sorry about that," he said.

"I guess you'll be going home now," she said.

"Yeah," he said. "I'll get out of your hair. Thanks for your hospitality."

She laughed awkwardly. Some hospitality. "Do you want me to take the next few days off school?" she asked. "I haven't taken many sick days this year, so..."

"No!" he said. "I want to observe the effect as it fades! ...and... also you shouldn't have to do that."

"Ok," she said, laughing. "I won't interfere with you gathering data." Sometimes she found his obsession with gathering information on demi-humans a little weird. But at least it meant he'd gotten something positive out of this whole experience.

"Thanks." He smiled, and her heart skipped a beat. She liked him _so much_. And he liked her, too. For now.

The real experiment would be to see if his feelings would last.

* * *

"Good morning, Satou-sensei. You look nice today."

"Thank you, Takahashi-sensei," said Sakie, blushing. He looked especially handsome this morning, in a button-up shirt and tie instead of his usual t-shirt, with his shaggy hair looking almost tamed. He'd come in to spend time with her every morning for the last week, and she'd gone from dreading her early starts to looking forward to them. Often they just sat quietly working on boring things like lesson plans, but just being with him made her feel good, even with all her bittersweet feelings. She'd spent the last week preparing herself for his rejection, knowing at least that he'd be kind about it, as he was about everything.

"But only an average amount of nice, for you," he added. "Well under one standard deviation from the mean."

"Oh," she said. "That's...um. Good to know." He'd said something similar yesterday, too. She'd never know otherwise, he always treated her exactly the same way as before, even at the start when the attraction must have been excruciating. But it had apparently worn off at last. So how did he feel about her, now? Had his interest in her been real, or fake? She was too afraid to ask.

Not that she could anyway, right now.

"Is this how nerds flirt?" said Ono-sensei. He'd come in early this morning too, and had spent the last half hour pumping air into brightly coloured balls from a large box while playing music from his phone annoyingly loudly. Because of course Sakie would have the staff room to herself every morning except the one time it mattered.

"No," said Takahashi-sensei, "I'm just reporting the observable facts."

"Uh huh," said Ono-sensei. "Well, as long as she's not directing her succubus-ness at me I don't really care what you two get up to."

"You're _married_," said Sakie. She would never!

"Exactly," said Ono-sensei. "So keep your distance."

"Ono-sensei, that's incredibly rude," said Takahashi-sensei. "Satou-sensei is always entirely professional, and very careful not to let her succubus nature affect those around her. You could stand to be as considerate."

"...sorry, Satou-sensei," said Ono-sensei, looking abashed. "I didn't mean to imply you'd ever do anything like that."

"Thank you," said Sakie. "And thank you, Takahashi-sensei."

"And I'm quite sure Satou-sensei's aphrodisiac effect isn't notably affecting me right now," continued Takahashi-sensei, smiling at Sakie in a way that made her knees weak. "I just think she looks nice."

"I guess," said Ono-sensei, briefly glancing at Sakie and then quickly looking back down. "My wife is still prettier."

"I'm sure she is," said Sakie. Ono-sensei was being a jerk, but at least he had noble motives. "Thank you for the apology, Ono-sensei."

"Mmm," he said. "I'm off to put these in the gym. See you guys later."

"Bye," said Takahashi-sensei.

The moment the door closed he leaned towards Sakie with a grin, not _quite_ close enough that they touched. "It's been a week. The aphrodisiac effect has worn off, and I still really like you. Want to go on a date?"

The universe stopped. She hadn't prepared herself for this.

"O-oh," she said. "Really?"

He really, truly liked her? He wasn't being confused by attraction to her succubus nature, he liked _her_?

"Yep. So what do you say?"

"Yes," she said. She felt warmth bloom in her chest. "Yes, I'd...I'd really like to go on a date with you, Takahashi-sensei."

"Fantastic. How about tonight?" He looked delighted and relieved. As if there'd been any danger that she'd say no!

"To-tonight? But I'm not dressed up or-"

"I think if you dressed up I might die," he said with a laugh. "You're more than pretty enough as it is. And you always stay late after school. Why not spend the evening with me? We can have dinner together and then I'll walk you to the train."

She wanted to cry. Not out of frustration or despair, but sheer happiness. "That sounds really lovely."

They smiled at each other, and for a while they just stayed as they were, sharing the moment in companionable silence. For the first time in ten years, Sakie could imagine a happy future for herself, full of moments like this of quiet companionship, with no expectations but her own existence.

"Haaa..." Takahashi-sensei stood up straight and put his hands in his pockets. "Now to spend the rest of the day trying not to be constantly annoyed about how much I'd rather be with you. "

"Are you really sure you're not still, um...under the influence?"

"Yeah. I mostly just want to hang out with you again."

She'd had guys say that before, but always with ulterior motives. But from him, she knew it was sincere. "How are you so nice?"

He raised his eyebrows. "I'm not sure wanting to hang out with a charming, beautiful woman instead of teaching a bunch of lazy teenagers is all that remarkable."

"You're definitely remarkable."

"Ehehe." He rubbed the back of his neck self consciously. He was so cute!

There was a sound in the corridor: some of the other teachers were arriving.

"Meet you outside the gates after school?" he said, quickly.

"It's a date."

He flashed her a grin and went to sit at his own desk.

Sakie spent the whole rest of the day distracted. She was glad he'd chosen today for their date, if she'd had to wait another day or more she might have collapsed from tension. She rushed through her last class, and afterwards had to force herself not to kick out the last few students, who lingered with questions about an upcoming test. Then she ducked into the toilets and stared at herself in the mirror. There wasn't much she could do with her appearance. Looking too attractive on school grounds would be career suicide, and she didn't have time to change into anything less casual anyway. She shook out her hair and considered putting it into a nicer hairstyle, but she couldn't think of anything appropriate. She sighed and put it back into the same boring ponytail as before.

What with one thing and another, by the time she made it to the gates the school was almost empty. Which made it very easy to tell that Takahashi-sensei wasn't there.

_He's just running late_, she told herself. Even if he _had_ decided he didn't want to date her after all, he was the sort of dependable person who'd show up to break her heart in person.

As she waited, she noticed that some enterprising student had used some of the remaining snow to create an overly anatomically correct snow-man. She vented her anxiety by kicking it, but then ended up with a mixture of mud and snow all over her boot. Ugh! She started hopping to try and shake it off, not wanting to get her hands dirty.

"Hi," said Takahashi-sensei. She nearly fell over in her haste to stand up straight and look like less of a total dork.

"Hi!"

"Sorry I'm late," he said. "Naturally today is the day some of my students decided it would be a good idea to play catch with glass beakers during my final lesson." He pouted and looked down at his shirt, which was partly visible under his thick, warm looking jacket. "This was my _nice_ shirt, too."

Looking at him more closely, she realised the shirt had a number of damp patches, splotched with faint blue spots. The fabric clung to his muscular torso in a few places and now that she'd noticed it was hard not to stare.

She forced her eyes back up to his face. "That sounds really annoying! Do you need help cleaning it up?"

"No," he said, snickering. "I got them to do it. I'll be checking on Monday to make sure they got up every piece, otherwise I'll make them clean the whole room again."

"You can be a little bit mean sometimes, you know, Takahashi-sensei."

He made an outraged face, as if she'd horribly insulted him. "They deserved it!" He was a lot more unreserved and informal around her these days. She liked it.

She gave a sidelong smile. "I wasn't complaining."

"Oh?" he said, a smile slowly forming. "You like it when I'm mean? Well then. Let me tell you about some annoying little trouble-makers I had to deal with a few years ago..."

He led her on a circuitous route through the city, avoiding the afternoon crowds by detouring through side streets and unpopular shops. When she asked where they were going he just smiled. Was it somewhere fancy and romantic? She hoped she wouldn't be too under-dressed.

This...did not turn out to be a problem.

"Um," she said. "Takahashi-sensei... karaoke is a lot of fun, but I'm not really comfortable performing in front of others..."

"No, no, of course not!" he said. "I'm not expecting you to sing in front of anyone!" Then why...did he bring her to a karaoke bar... "This was the cheapest place I could think of that serves food and would let me book a private room for two."

"Oh!" She laughed. "That's pretty clever!" Most guys wouldn't admit they chose the cheapest option for a date, but most guys wouldn't think so carefully about her needs in the first place. The first time she was asked on a date, one of the guys in her middle-school class had given her a ticket to a concert for some hot new band, clearly hoping to get close to her in the crush of bodies. He'd gotten really angry about the expense when she'd said no.

"This place had pretty good reviews online for the food. Do you like tapas?"

Oh no. What was tapas again? She never paid attention to food trends. "Tapas...that's...Spanish, right?" He nodded. "Is it the one where everyone shares lots of different little dishes, like an izakaya bar?"

"Yes," he said. "I haven't tried it, but it sounds like fun."

_This isn't a test, Sakie, it's about the two of you having a good time._ "Yes, it does sounds like it would be fun!"

He let out a relieved sigh. "Oh good." He'd been worried she wouldn't like it? Was he nervous too? He didn't look nervous, but he was frustratingly good at hiding that sort of thing. She was so anxious she could barely keep her words straight, but it helped to know she wasn't the only one who wanted the date to go well.

Tapas _was_ fun. Sakie wasn't sure authentic Spanish cuisine involved quite so much seaweed, but it was all very tasty. It felt a little intimate to be eating from the same dishes as Takahashi-sensei, and it was fun to compare their impressions and decide on their respective favourites. And once she explained that it made her feel like One Of Those Succubi to have a guy pay for her, Takahashi-sensei had been happy to agree to split the bill. It was a little strange having the karaoke screen just staring at them unused, but she soon forgot it was even there.

"So..." he said, when they'd both reached the point of encouraging the other to finish the last piece of each of the nicest dishes. "I hope it's ok, but, I got you a gift."

She dropped her chopsticks. "Oh! But I didn't get you anything!"

"What, no that's..." He stopped. "Oh, is it like the paying for food thing? This is really small, though." He looked down at the box in his hands, visibly pondering. Then he looked up and proffered it to her with a smile. "Take this now, and you can get me something on our next date."

"Our next..." She couldn't hold back a nervous, happy giggle. He wanted to go another date! "Ok." She took the box. It wasn't wrapped, and was labelled with the name of a nice, mid-range chocolate company. She was quickly getting the impression that Takahashi-sensei wasn't the grand romantic gestures type. But she'd much rather he do little things intended to make her happy than try to dazzle her and then expect something dazzling in return.

"Do you like chocolate? I probably should have asked that first, haha. I thought about getting you a hairpin but wasn't sure if that would come across as creepy."

"I do like chocolate! But why would a hairpin be creepy?"

"Well, I was imagining...uh..." He rubbed the back of his neck and looked away. "Satou-sensei, now that we're alone, and dating...would you mind if I was honest about how attracted to you I am? If it makes you uncomfortable, I won't. But sometimes it's hard to know what to say when I'm trying to pretend not to...feel what I'm feeling."

Oh. This was...familiar. Pretty much every time a guy had given her chocolates, or flowers, or anything like that, he'd followed it up by talking about how sexy she was, and what he wanted to do to her. Often in excruciating detail.

"Um..." she said. "Th-that's kind of a scary question."

"Ah, sorry. Forget I asked."

"No, it's not bad that you asked. I just...all my experiences with guys honestly telling me how attracted to me they were have been...a bit bad? But...I don't want this...this relationship, if we have one...I don't want it to be based on lies. If you feel a certain way, even if it makes me uncomfortable...I think I want to know."

He nodded. "Honesty is important. Tact is important too though. Even if I'm not always great at it. So I'll try to strike a balance."

"Th-that sounds good."

"Ok. Well..." He laughed. "This is a little embarrassing. But...I really like your hair."

That wasn't quite what she'd been imagining. "Thank you?"

He leaned slightly closer, and his voice got a little smoky in a way that made a shiver run down her spine. "I really, _really_ like your hair. Whenever you've taken it out, I...I really liked it. But I didn't want to stare and make things weird, and I know you normally have to keep it up. So I thought, if I got you a hair-clip, you could wear it when we're alone, and take your hair out. And...uh. It would be nice."

This was so much more endearing than she could possibly have imagined. She knew there must be a sexual component to his feelings that he wasn't voicing, but it's wasn't like the warmth she felt towards him right now was entirely innocent either. "I could take my hair out now, if you want."

He let out a little gasp. "Would you?" _Hot_.

She reached up and pulled off her hair-band, then shook out her hair. When she looked up, he was staring at her, with a faint, slightly dazed smile. "Mmm..." he said, happily. "Nice."

_I bet if I leaned in right now,_ she thought, _he'd kiss me_. But because of how her aphrodisiac effect worked, kissing was a short step away from sex, and this was only their first date. She wanted to do this properly.

She also really, _really_ wanted to kiss him.

She stood up. "Since we're here, maybe I'll sing something after all," she said, scrolling through the list of songs. Too many love songs! She actually quite enjoyed singing, and was certainly feeling romantic. But she knew from bitter experience how easily singing could be read as sexy, and they already had enough of that. Part of her wanted to say she'd changed her mind, so she could sit back down without embarrassing herself, but she'd committed to singing now.

She eventually settled on an old folk song, since it was short, not very sexy, and she knew the tune. It was only when she'd gotten half through the chorus that she realised it was a love song too, albeit from a man to a woman. It was certainly pitched for a man's voice, and she had to croak her way through all the low parts, but Takahashi-sensei sat watching as if entranced. Was he being polite, or turned on, or did he genuinely enjoy watching her sing? Maybe he just liked watching her with her hair out.

When she was done, he gave a small round of applause. She gave a self conscious little bow and sat back down.

"Very nice," he said. "That reminded me of my childhood. It also reminded me of a question I've been wanting to ask you for a while."

"Yes?"

"Satou-sensei, are you heterosexual?"

"Um..." Wait, was this because she sang a love song about a woman? "Yes? I just chose that song because it was short!" But why did it matter? Even though Sakie _was_ straight, she still felt a pang of disappointment at the thought that he might be homophobic. He'd always seemed so open-minded. "Is me being straight...important to you?"

"No, no," said Takahashi-sensei. "I didn't mean it like that! As long as you're interested in me, who else you might be interested in is no big deal. I've been with men myself, a few times."

"Oh!" she said. Well then. He definitely wasn't a homophobe! "So you're..."

"I'm not sure if I'm bi exactly," he said, "I was mostly just curious to know what it was like."

She laughed. "Of course," she said. That was such a him thing to do. "So you were just curious about me, too?"

"Actually I was wondering how your sexuality affects who's attracted to you. It's always struck me as odd that succubi are supposed to only be attractive to men, when a relatively large minority of women are said to experience same sex attraction. And it's not like human gender is all that neatly defined in the first place. So I thought maybe if you were only attracted to men yourself, that might explain it."

"Oh," said Sakie. "But I'm not only attractive to men I'm attracted to. Life would be a lot easier if I was."

"Ah, that's true."

"As for women...I have had some express interest in me, but not very often. And they were always very polite about it. Sometimes I've thought that life would be easier if I was into women haha. But it would probably just be difficult in a different way."

"Mmm," said Takahashi-sensei. "In my experience women are a lot more subtle about that sort of thing than men. Maybe your aphrodisiac effect has worked on lots of women, they just kept it to themselves."

"That's kind of a weird thought. But I guess it wouldn't do them any harm..." For a moment she thought, sadly, _Do I have to be paranoid around them too?_ But she'd gone this long without worrying about it, and it wasn't like she made a habit of touching women or exposing herself to them on purpose. She still sent a silent mental apology to any poor lesbians who'd seen her in changing rooms or public baths.

"Right," said Takahashi-sensei. "I've sometimes wondered what would happen if Hikari experienced your aphrodisiac effect. She said she doesn't especially want to drink from you, but I think logically that your blood should taste more delicious than anyone else's."

"Um..." Her _blood?_

He coughed. "That was kind of a weird thing to say, sorry."

She burst into laughter. "It really was. But I'll take it as a compliment, even if I'm not going to touch Takanashi to test your hypothesis."

"No, of course not! I just meant that if it happened _accidentally_ it would be-" He trailed off self consciously, and then suddenly stood up. "You know what, maybe I will sing something after all." He stepped away and busied himself with the song choice screen.

_Cute_.

She hoped he'd pick a love song too. Hearing him croon sappy lyrics would be pretty romantic. And then he took to the stage and the backing music started up, and she was hit by a wave of discordant guitars and heavy drums. Takahashi-sensei leaned into the microphone and growled out something about shadows and death while glowering down at her under heavy brows and clutching his chest dramatically, and she decided this was good too. She really liked how laid back and gentle Takahashi-sensei was most of the time, but seeing him pretend to be all dark and intense was definitely...something.

As the final notes died down he gave a deep bow with his arms outstretched, and Sakie clapped enthusiastically. "Wow, you really got into it! You made that look really fun."

"It was!"

There was nobody here but the two of them. Why not let herself have a little fun, too?

She got up and scrolled through the song list for something equally dramatic, and eventually settled on an angsty rock ballad from her teens about the cruelty of the world. At first she just stood on the stage and sang without moving very much, but Takahashi-sensei kept giving her encouraging smiles, and all the agonised lyrics reminded her of singing by herself in her bedroom as a teenager, and she started to get into it too. She ran her hand down her face and sang about broken dreams and threw back her head to despair about a life without meaning, and felt all her frustrations and disappointments flowing through her like water. She ended with her hand on her heart, her hair around her face, and her heart beating like a drum.

Takahashi-senpai clapped and grinned. "Amazing."

"Thank you," she said, sitting down back next to him. "Haa...now I'm all hot though. Would it be alright if I took off my jacket?"

"Of course," he said, but he moved ever so slightly further away.

She took off her jacket as unsexily as she could. She was wearing a long-sleeved t-shirt underneath, very plain but stretched tight across her chest, and Takahashi-sensei didn't quite manage to hide how much he wanted to stare at her breasts. She felt a pang of guilt, and fear. But there was no way this relationship could work if she was too afraid to ever let go around him. And why shouldn't she look attractive to someone she was dating?

"Wow," he said, eyes firmly focussed on her forehead. "I always think I'm ready for how amazing you look, but I never am. Even if you weren't a succubus, I...I'd think you were very pretty."

She knew what words like 'pretty' and 'nice' were generally code for at this point, but appreciated him trying not to be crude.

"Thank you."

"Satou-sensei..." he said. "Uh...is it alright if..." Was he going to ask to kiss her? Did she have the strength to say no? What would happen if she said yes? "Can I...call you...Sakie?"

He just...he just wanted to...

She burst into tears.

"Ah," he said, sounding distressed. "Sorry, if it's too soon..." He handed her a pile of napkins.

"No," she said, taking the napkins and wiping her eyes. "You can call me Sakie. I want you to. I just thought...I thought you were going to kiss me."

"Oh," he said, leaning towards her. "Well, Sat..._Sakie_, if you want me to kiss you, I would be quite happy to obli-"

She flinched back. He looked at her in surprise, the corners of his open mouth turning down.

"Sorry, sorry," she said. "I just...I wish you _could_ kiss me. I wish...but if you kiss me, one thing will lead to another, and..."

"No it won't," he said. "Not if you don't want it to. Actually, not even if you _do_ want it to. We'd get arrested!"

"I didn't even think of that!" she said, horrified. "Ugaki-san would be so disappointed in me..."

He sighed. "Sakie...You should be able to kiss someone without worrying about...is there anything I can do to make this easier for you?"

"I don't know," she said. "You've done everything I could ask for. You've been better than I ever dreamed was possible. And I'm so sick of holding back all the time, of feeling like I can't...I can't let go, at all, or...or something terrible will happen and it will all be my fault. But when I do let go I feel so bad afterwards. I feel like everyone was right about me, about what a succubus is. About what we deserve."

"All you deserve," he said, gently. "Is to feel happy and safe. And I want to help you feel that way, any way I can." He held up some more napkins, with an expression of, _it's not much, but it's all I have._

"Thank you," she said. "Ta...Tetsuo. I want you to be happy, too."

"Oh," he said. "Oh, well, then you can definitely keep calling me Tetsuo." He laughed to himself. "Wow."

"Ok, Tetsuo," she said, enjoying the sound of his name, and the way he looked at her when she said it. "I like it when you call me Sakie, too."

"I'm glad, Sakie." He made her name sound like an endearment, like she was something precious. No-one had ever made her name sound like that before.

But he wasn't a dateless loser like her. "Haven't...dates called you Tetsuo before?"

"Yeah," he said. "But not you."

She felt herself blushing and covered her face. Ahhh, he was so sweet!

"It's been a few years since I dated anyone," he said. "And while this all isn't entirely new for me, it's still special. No-one else was quite like you."

"Because I'm a succubus?"

"Well...that certainly makes things _different_. But you know I'm not just dating you because you're a demi-human, right?"

She blinked. "Actually that never occurred to me! Most people think demi-humans are scary and weird. Some men seek out succubi in particular, but I know you're not like _that_. I guess you do find demi-humans fascinating, though..."

"Scientifically! My interest is purely scientific!"

She leaned slightly closer with a smile, and noticed his eyes widen slightly with repressed desire. "So you're saying your interest in me is purely scientific?"

"Ahaha...you...no...no, with you my interest is...uh, layered." He smiled bashfully and rubbed the back of his neck, showing off his lovely arm muscles and even more lovely smile.

She laughed. She felt calm and happy and safe.

"Tetsuo," she said, enjoying the sound of his name, the way it made her think of iron, strong and cool. "I think...I think I'd like you to kiss me."

"Really?" His voice was a little squeaky.

"Yes," she said, moving a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "But just a kiss."

"Right," said Tetsuo. "I don't want Ugaki-san to shoot me."

"I don't think he'd..." She stopped, brain stuttering to a halt as Tetsuo put his hand to her face. He didn't come any closer, he just smiled at her and softly rubbed his thumb across her cheek. She took a deep breath, and smiled back. He moved closer, slowly, watching her expression. He tilted his head, and their lips met.

And then he pulled away, just a little. His eyes were shining, and she could feel his hand trembling slightly against her. "How was that?" he asked softly.

"...nice," she said.

"Good." He moved towards her, looking like he wanted to kiss her again, but then he rested his head on her shoulder. She put her arms around him and he snuggled closer. She patted his hair and, feeling brave, kissed it. "Sakie..." he said, with a happy sigh.

"Thank you, Tetsuo," she said.

"Thank _you_," he said. "That was the most intensely enjoyable kiss of my life."

She sighed happily, and nuzzled his hair. It smelled like him. "Me too."

"Yes but...I assume that's because you've never been kissed before."

"N...not exactly," she said, with a catch in her breath. It was just the first time she'd been kissed and wanted it.

"Ah, Sakie," he said, sadly. His hands tightened around her. "Well I'll make sure all your future kisses are even better."

She leaned against his chest and into the gentle strength of his arms, and realised she believed him.


End file.
